The Relationship between Sleep and Mental Health: The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep is among the basic physiological needs of living things. The purpose of sleep is to allow the body to rest and renew its energy. Sleep has an important role for the continuation of human life in a healthy way both physically and mentally. A quality night’s sleep helps to regulate the hormonal balance that affects the metabolism and appetite physically, helps the body to renew itself and heart health, as well as to protect mental health.

Sleep is a biological process that repeats every night and consists of cycles. A full sleep cycle takes 70-120 minutes. The four stages of sleep go through cycles. The first three stages are NREM, and the fourth stage is REM sleep. In the first two stages, non-REM sleep is experienced, and in the third stage, Slow Wave Sleep, also known as Delta Sleep, is experienced and deep sleep is entered. In deep sleep, the cells undergo a self-repairing process and the body’s energy is renewed. Memory and learning functions are activated in REM sleep.

There is a complex relationship between sleep and psychology. While sleeping, there is an increase in activity in the amygdala and hippocampus regions, which perform the task of emotion regulation in the brain. With this increase in activity, mental functions and emotional stability are preserved. Poor sleep quality and insufficient sleep affect mental health and cause mood disorders. Poor quality sleep can cause psychological problems, as well as psychological problems can cause poor quality sleep. When sleep quality decreases, it becomes difficult to manage psychological problems. In the literature, the most common psychological problems as a result of poor quality sleep are known as depression and anxiety. In addition, poor quality sleep affects the treatment negatively in individuals receiving psychological treatment.

A quality sleep makes the person feel energetic and ready for the day. When sleep quality is poor, inattention, perception and memory problems, emotional lability, hallucinations and delusions, and excessive stress can be experienced. Accordingly, the social life, working life, physical and mental health of individuals can be affected. According to the theory of brain plasticity, the purpose of sleep is to help neurons reorganize. According to the researches, unnecessary information is deleted during the sleep process, thus contributing to memory. In addition, short-term memories are transformed into long-term memories. It is known that when you are very tired, it becomes difficult to remember things. This is due to the lack of adequate quality sleep. A good night’s sleep not only helps the body rest, but also helps organize and store memories in the brain. Quality sleep is essential for storing newly learned information. Quality and regular sleep helps memory work better.

A good night’s sleep lowers blood pressure, protects heart health, and reduces stress by creating a state of relaxation that helps to stay calm. When the human body cannot rest enough, it can produce high levels of stress hormones as a result of the fast pace of daily life. A quality sleep prevents this. In addition, the increased stress hormone makes it difficult to fall asleep. For this reason, regular quality sleep helps to stay away from stress, and a stress-free life increases sleep quality.

Quality sleep is essential for maintaining mental health. Physical activity, diet, sleep environment and stress level play an important role for quality sleep. Regular exercise during the day has a significant effect on sleep quality. Nutrition and sleep are highly interrelated. Not consuming sugary and processed foods before bedtime and avoiding excessive caffeine consumption increase sleep quality. Like physical activity and diet, the sleep environment is also very important for good sleep. Sleeping and waking up at the same time every day, regulating the sleep time and sleep environment improves sleep quality. It is necessary to stop using electronic devices before going to sleep. The use of electronic devices causes the brain to become active and the mind to rejuvenate, reducing the amount of melatonin and prolonging the time to fall asleep. The hormone melatonin regulates the body’s biological clock. In order for the melatonin hormone to be secreted, a dark environment must be provided. Stress level is also known to affect sleep quality. When the stress level is high, the state of arousal increases and it becomes difficult to fall asleep. This can cause sleep disorders. The emergence of emotions and negative thoughts experienced during the day at the time of sleep affects the quality of sleep negatively. When such situations occur, a mental health professional should be consulted.